Parenting and raising children during the pre-school education stage.
Parenting and raising children during the pre-school education stage.
Introduction
Children's learning is not limited to the time they spend in school; they learn in various ways in different contexts at school with friends, with family members at home, and in other places. When children enter school, they bring with them their unique personalities and identities, which include the values, skills, knowledge, and interests associated with their lives outside of school. The family is therefore the first environment in the human and social development of the child, where he acquires his knowledge, experiences, and initial social behaviors through the educational stimuli he is exposed to, whether positive or negative, during his developmental stages. These experiences contribute to shaping the features of his personal, social, and moral identity, placing a significant responsibility on the parents. Additionally, the way they interact with the child and the types of experiences they provide serve as the models according to which his interactions and social relationships will be formed, influencing his emotional and affective growth.
What does parental upbringing mean?
Education refers to the totality of interactions, practices, and influences aimed at teaching the child values and behaviors, as well as acclimating them to the habits and traditions of society. It is a collection of various traditions, values, lifestyles, and ways of thinking within a society that are not passed down to the child genetically, but rather through cultural influence. This means that a child, from the moment of birth, needs the learning experiences that enable them to acquire the necessary cultural tools for their upbringing and social integration. It is natural for the family, as the fundamental nucleus and the primary pillar of education, a source of care, and a place of living, to be the powerful environment that influences a child's growth and the formation of their personality. In this sense, we can talk about parenting, which is summarized in the way parents interact with their child, specifically in the practices that translate their educational actions towards the latter. In this sense, it shapes the actions and words of the parents aimed at framing the child, guiding them, and providing them with the knowledge and values necessary for achieving social integration. Thus, parental education is a set of practices governed by a group of principles and foundations, directed by a series of objectives and goals.Where does the importance of parenting education manifest?
The importance of parenting during childhood and the child's need for proper upbringing and care from the family lies in the fact that this is the period when the foundations of their personality are established for the future. Parenting provides the essential needs for the child, which can be summarized as follows:• Securing the child's biological and material needs in terms of food, drink, shelter, clothing, and healthcare.
• Securing his intellectual needs, which refers to the conditions that help the child grow properly and protect his dignity.
Securing his emotional needs can only be achieved if he feels loved.
• Securing his social/relational needs by providing opportunities and situations in which the child can interact socially with others.
- A child needs these essentials in all their dimensions of care and upbringing, to learn values, ways of life, and thinking, and to ensure positive interaction with the components of society.
- The family forms the most influential environment in a child's growth and personality development.
- The family environment and the nature of the child's relationship with their parents represent one of the most important factors for future success.
Goals of parental education:
The importance of parenting during childhood and the child's need for proper upbringing and care from the family lies in the fact that this is the period when the foundations of their personality are established for the future.Parenting provides the essential needs for the child, which can be summarized as follows:
Achieving psychological balance for the child:
In the early stages of development, the child needs a sense of security as the basis for any emotional development.This is achieved through:
Satisfying basic biological needs and desires: The value and importance of healthy food, decent housing, and protection cannot be overlooked.
Protection from external harm: Parents are the ones who mitigate the strong shocks that the child may be exposed to from the external environment and help him communicate and interact with this environment to learn and adapt, and this dual role of parents gradually diminishes as the child grows.
Guiding, guiding and controlling the child's behavior: By providing them with a clear moral reference point so that they can distinguish between right and wrong, positive and negative.
Achieving social adjustment:
As the family is the first social environment in which the child interacts with those around him according to the rules of communication and social adaptation, the child recognizes the limits of his freedom and distinguishes between rights and duties and between what is possible and what is forbidden.
Seven positive methods related to parenting:
It is no secret to anyone the importance and influence of parents on the development of the child's personality, as the method of education they follow is one of his references to determine the nature of his upbringing and his personality in the future.
1- Understanding the child's world:
Knowing the child's psychological and physical developmental stages avoids many clashes with the child, who is going through sensitive developmental stages that have specific requirements that parents may misunderstand due to their lack of information about them.
2- Effective listening and problem-solving skills:
Communication with the child is one of the most important principles of positive parenting, as this communication has rules such as good listening, showing empathy through facial expressions and tones of voice, sharing the child's feelings and thoughts when needed, not passing judgments, describing his feelings and helping him understand them, which makes him able to deal with them later.
3- Mutual respect:
The principles of mutual respect between parents and their children are summarized on balancing between the model of firmness and kindness, firmness is by respecting adults and kindness is by respecting the child and his needs, children are more comfortable in an environment that is governed by clear laws or principles that everyone respects, the laws must participate in setting them and must be applied to adults as well as children, this creates mutual respect and great trust in parents, and avoids a lot of controversy and anger resulting from firmness in difficult situations.
4- The method of praise or praise:
The basic principle of the praise method is to pay attention to the child's desired behavior and praise and praise it (e.g: The child collects his toys and puts them in the designated box. In this way, the child's behavior tends to increase, since it is associated with approval and thanks, and then this type of behavior is generalized to include other types of similar behaviors (e.g., helping with some household activities, tidying up the bedroom...). By giving positive attention, you reinforce the behavior and the child seeks to repeat it
5- Presenting options:
The choice method is offering two or three options for the child to choose one of them, choice is a method that shows flexibility in dealing with children for better communication, gives them a sense of control over their daily lives, urges them to cooperate, and reduces confrontation when the child is asked to do something.
6- Reporting and telling:
It is important in alerting the child to what they have to do so that they are not surprised by it and prepare for it psychologically, especially when they are engaged in other work, so the reporting method helps the child to be cooperative.
7- Focus on solutions instead of blame:
When a child makes a mistake, the feeling of guilt and helplessness dominates him and blaming him increases this feeling and does not make him behave well next time, as it is better to involve him in proposing solutions to the issue resulting from his mistake, which enhances his problem-solving skills and instills confidence in his ability to overcome crises in the long term, shouting and blaming will not change the behavior but will lead to a frustrated child who diminishes himself.
This environment for positive parenting results in teaching the child life skills and social skills to build a healthy and effective personality, such as respect, problem solving, independence, cooperation and consideration for the feelings of others, all of which require a good environment in which the child feels important as an active and influential individual.
To sensitize parents to these positive pedagogical methods, educators must involve them in school life by activating a range of activities and following different methods and strategies.